Master of Darkness (23 page)

“You didn't mention this when you lured me back to the pack in Los Angeles.”

“You didn't need to know it then.”

“When Belisarius was still alive, you mean?”

“Yes. Now you need to know that I am king of all the packs. And you, son, are my heir.”

“Congratulations—Dad.”

Even trying the word on for size Laurent found he didn't like it.
Heir, my ass,
Laurent thought. It was clear from being among this crowd that Justinian wanted someone completely beholden to him to act as an enforcer.

In Laurent's opinion this proved that Justinian was one desperate vampire king.

When Justinian stood, Laurent turned back to face the room. By this time the women were in front of them. The guards made a show of pushing Eden and Sidonie to their knees. Laurent found this whole S&M D/S melodrama embarrassing, but he didn't let his feelings show. He managed a faint, almost indifferent sneer for the benefit of the avidly watching audience.

Justinian put a hand on Laurent's shoulder. Laurent disliked the touch on several levels, especially on the psychic one. Justinian made no
secret of the attempt to probe past Laurent's mental shielding.

Oh, please,
Laurent thought. And received the sensation of a mental shrug in reply. The games never stopped. Somehow, Laurent had to make them stop.

He couldn't help but look at Eden. But she was being smart and keeping her head down. As was Sid.
They
were aware that it was up to him to make the play that would get them out of here. At least, he hoped that was why they were behaving so passively, rather than having been drugged or hurt.

“I present to you my son, and my second, my beta Prime,” Justinian told the gathering. “Laurent of the Manticore.”

Loud rumblings came from the crowd in response. Laurent hadn't expected a spontaneous round of applause, but the hostility was much more than usual for this sort of announcement. He remembered the night Justinian had made this same announcement about Belisarius. There had been some applause that night, but Belisarius had been the main bully of the pack for years. That gave him a certain amount of respect and popularity among his peers.

Even so, a fight had broken out, and someone had died.

Laurent surreptitiously flexed his fingers, testing his claws; knowing it was only a matter of time.

“These females are my gift to my heir,” Justinian told the gathering, with an expansive gesture toward Eden and Sid.

That should do it,
Laurent thought.

Sure enough, a big Prime with a fresh tan stepped forward to get into Laurent's face. “I'll take the human bitch.”

“Go ahead,” Laurent answered. He waited for Eden's gaze to flash angrily up to meet his, then he smiled at her. He gestured casually toward the other Prime. “If he wants to commit suicide, who am I to stop him, sweetheart?”

Eden laughed.

Sid said sternly, “Laurent.”

“I love you, Laurent Wolf,” Eden added.

The challenging Prime stepped toward Eden, hand raised to strike her.

“I can't have that,” Laurent said, grabbing the Manticore by the wrist.

She loves me
.

The glow of pleasure burning in him was ridiculous. It added an extra fillip to the joy of sinking his claws deep into the other vampire's tough hide. Laurent used the hold to swing the Prime away across the room, taking the fight away from the women.

Space quickly cleared in the center of the room. After that things got ugly. Laurent concentrated on what had to be done. All right, he took a certain amount of pleasure in mauling the bastard who'd tried to claim Eden. He
was
Prime.

When it was over, and Laurent was standing over the body of his dead opponent something nagged at him about the fight. The other Prime had been a Dawn user, Laurent could tell by his sun-kissed California tan. His reflexes had also been a bit slower than normal. There'd been a wild look in his eyes that couldn't be accounted for simply by his being a Tribe vampire. It hadn't been an easy victory. But it should have been harder.

We can use this,
his sister's words floated as the merest of faint whisper of thought into his head.

Maybe,
he thought. But he turned around to find trouble still getting in the way of any escape attempt. Hell, even if the Dawn users were a little on the wussy side, the Manticores still had his team outnumbered three to one.

Right now Justinian was holding Eden, his fist twisted in her hair, her head pulled back exposing her throat. He had a look of sheer maddened fury on his face.

“She called you Wolf,” he said to Laurent. “The bitch dared call you—!”

“Let her go,” Laurent said, taking a careful step forward. He'd never been so afraid of Justinian before, not in a long lifetime of being afraid of his sire. “Let her go.”

Justinian raised his other hand, long, fierce claws extended. He touched them to Eden's cheek. “Not before I mark her.”

“She's mine. You have no right.”

“All of Manticore is mine. I am king Prime.”

A drop of blood oozed from Eden's cheek as Justinian pressed one claw into tender human flesh.

Laurent's first impulse was to rush forward. Everything in him called out to get Eden away from the monster. But that wasn't the way. There was only one certain way to save Eden, to save them all.

And he acknowledged that his whole life had been leading up to this moment.

“You won't be king Prime for long, old man. I challenge.”

Laurent turned slowly, though he hated turning his back on Eden's predicament for even a moment. It had to be done right. He had to make it official.

“I challenge!” he shouted, making sure everyone
heard, that all the other Primes knew his intentions.

The other Primes sent up a cheer thick with bloodlust.

“I challenge Justinian for leadership of Tribe Manticore!”

Chapter Twenty-five

“T
he guys on guard are squirrely,” Joe said as he returned from his reconnaissance mission. He'd left the rest of his team waiting in the company van a block away from the Manticore stronghold while he carried out the initial part of the plan.

“Good for us,” Daniel said.

“I don't understand,” Antonia said over Cathy's snarling. She had a firm grip on Cathy's leash.

Right now the office manager was in the form of a hundred-and-ten-pound white and gold wolf. She was a small woman, but her mass made her a formidable creature when morphed into werewolf form. Someday Cathy would learn how to control the change, and manage to keep sentient as well while in morphed form. Being a werewolf would be fun. But for now the full moon took away everything but the darker, dangerous cravings of werewolf nature. The need to hunt and kill was about to come in handy.

“There are two vampires patrolling the grounds, but they're not really paying attention,” Joe explained. “I overheard part of a very intense
Pulp Fiction
-esque conversation about sunrises.”

“That you managed to get close enough to overhear them bodes well,” Antonia said. “They must be Dawn users.”

“Which means we can take them,” Daniel said.

He was holding a Glock modified to fire silver-tipped bullets Sid had recently developed. She'd said that it might prove useful in a missing-persons case.

“I wish we'd found some more useful equipment when we broke in to the vampire hunter's place,” Daniel added.

“It would have been nice if the vampire hunter had been there,” Joe said. “We could have used her help. At least we got the zapper.”

“Where is it?” Daniel asked.

Joe had carried it in a backpack when he approached Justinian's house. “I was listening to the sunrise conversation while I set the zapper
up to save us some time. It's hidden by a bush at the back of the house, near the tall windows you remembered, Lady Antonia. You're right about that being the best insertion point.”

He'd also left some clothes for later. Now he started to quickly undress.

“I'm glad to be of help. Now what?” Antonia asked.

“Now we move out,” Joe said. “Take out the guards, turn on the zapper—your job, Daniel, I can't do it with my nose. Then we break in and save Sidonie.”

Joe took a deep breath, and morphed into his black wolf form.

“Hurray for us,” Daniel said.

“Let's go,” Antonia said, and set off at a vampire's swift pace, the blond werewolf loping at her side.

“Well, well,” Justinian said. “I was hoping for this.”

“I bet you were, old man,” Laurent said. “Did you foresee beating me?”

“Of course.”

Justinian tossed Eden aside. She landed squarely on top of Sid, and the women went down in a heap. Laurent stepped around them, concentrating on his sire.

“I foresaw you needing to be put in your place one last time,
boy
. You'll be my heir, but I'll tame you once and for all first.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Laurent complained. “Heard it before.”

Laurent waited and watched the older Prime. He was in no hurry. Once upon a time—many times—he had blindly, mindlessly attacked. And every time led to the same painful, humiliating ending.

Now he had the patience of an adult. And something besides himself to fight for: Eden. Sid. Freedom.

“Come and get me, old man,” he invited.

As Eden fell hard on top of Sid, the vampire whispered, “Help me!” and shoved her manacled hands toward Eden's face. “One more tug.”

There was a wild look in the vampire's eyes that shocked Eden, then she grinned. Sid was on the side of the angels. She sure hoped Laurent was on the side of the angels, because she'd never heard anyone sound so dangerous before.

A deep, animal snarl from Justinian made her flinch. She felt the rush of air as the older Prime leapt toward Laurent, and her adrenaline spiked with fear.

Laurent needed her!

Eden would have rushed into the fight, but Sid grabbed her. “Help me! Then we can both help Laurent!”

This got through to Eden. A fight to the death raged only a few feet away. She had to make sure the one who died wasn't Laurent.

None of the Primes were paying any attention to a pair of lowly females. Eden wrapped her hands around Sidonie's wrists and joined the vampire in breaking the chain.

Sid was right, it took only a few moments.

But the instant Sid was free and on her feet she covered her ears with her hands and slammed back down to her knees.

And she wasn't the only one.

Eden looked around as vampires began to howl, run around like maniacs, and attack each other. She whirled around desperately, looking for Laurent. She spotted him and Justinian in front of the fireplace, struggling back and forth across the floor. They were both covered in blood. Justinian's face was a mask of pain. She saw that Laurent recognized what was going on, and was working through the disorientation.

“That's my boy,” she murmured, and quickly turned back to Sid. She grabbed Sid by the shoulders. “Look at me!”

It took a moment, but Sid's gaze finally focused on Eden. “Hurts.”

“Ignore it. Fight it. Get up. You're tougher than these Manticore bastards.”

“Damn right,” Sid answered, on a hiss of pain.

Eden stepped back, letting Sid get to her feet on her own. She watched as Sidonie Wolf transformed from a beautiful woman into a beautiful woman with long fangs and sharp, vicious claws.

“I forgot that females can do that too.”

Sid forced a laugh. “So do Tribe males,” she said. Then she bared her fangs and jumped on the back of the nearest Prime.

Eden didn't have any of the usual weapons of her vampire slaying trade, but she didn't let a little thing like that stop her. What was the use of sweating through years of martial arts training if she couldn't beat up on some scum vampires that were being zapped?

The world wanted to go red, but this was no time to let it. Discipline and stubbornness were the best weapons Laurent had right now. He actually preferred the pain from the zapper to what he'd been going through moments before.

You're a fool, boy. Weak. Mine
.

Justinian bombarded him with such thoughts from the instant the fight started.

You can't hurt me. You know who your master is
.

The words were deadlier than the blows.

Laurent was physically stronger, faster.

But Justinian was better at twisting the knife.

Until the zapping began, Laurent had spent too much energy defending against the insidious thoughts that slid past his shielding and tried to wreck his heart and soul.

Eden loved him. He had a sister. Antonia was safe.

This armor covered old wounds, kept him in the fight, but it was new to him.

You're losing more blood than I am,
Laurent pointed out, and spun around to rake claws across Justinian's back.

The older Prime howled. And as he did the windows exploded inward. In this moment Laurent noticed that the room was full of violence—Primes battling with Primes. Sid and Eden were in the thick of it, fighting back to back.

“Good girls.”

Then a pair of werewolves came through the broken windows, followed by more humanoid shapes. A gun fired. A Prime screamed and fell. Help had arrived.

Laurent was laughing when he grappled once more with Justinian. This time he went in for the kill.

Joe blessed whoever had come up with Dawn, because there sure were a lot of vampires in the room. But fortunately, the drug users were weaker than the rest, and most of the vampires were users. This gave him and Cathy more than half a chance. The zapper had set all the Primes off already, the pain spreading the always volatile into a riot. Cathy was already spreading bloody carnage. Joe took a quick look around to see how the rest of his team was doing. Sid was in the fray, so was Antonia. Much to his surprise he saw the human hunter smashing a heavy chair over a vampire's head. And, my, my, there was brother Laurent. Satisfied, he let out a warrior's howl and leapt into the riot.